He dreamed of jobs in all kinds of fields as a kid, then he found out he can live his dreams as an actor

By Jim Flint

When Julian Remulla was a kid and was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, the answer usually depended on the last movie he had seen or what make-believe game he had been playing. A doctor, a sailor, a baker, Spider-Man. Now he does it all and more — and gets paid for it.

Remulla is treading the boards in his fourth season as an actor for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, this year playing protagonist Jack Worthing in “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the Angus Bowmer Theatre.

“I didn’t realize back then that acting was a way to be all of those things,” Remulla said, “but I’ve found the one job where that’s actually possible.”

Well, he has yet to be offered the Spider-Man role, but don’t count him out. At 33, he’s still got time.

Joined OSF in 2016

Remulla and his wife, Bebe, live in New York City. He first found his way to Ashland when he came across an open call on Actor’s Access for OSF’s 2016 season while living in Los Angeles.

“They were holding auditions in the city, so I submitted. Not long after, I got an email from Joy Dickson, OSF’s resident casting director. She told me she had seen me in ‘Appoggiatura’ in Denver.”

Remulla auditioned for her and the OSF team at an L.A. theater, and then, as in the case of an actor who does many auditions, filed it in the back of his mind and soon forgot about it.

Months later, while sitting in his car in the garage after his very first trip as an Uber driver, checking emails on his phone, something in his inbox caught his eye.

“It was an offer from OSF,” he said. “Start date: April 1, 2016. I remember counting down the days and hoping this wasn’t the most elaborate April Fool’s joke ever played.”

It wasn’t.

He performed in three OSF productions that year: as part of the ensemble for “Hamlet,” Dion and ensemble in “The Winter’s Tale,” and multiple roles in “Timon of Athens.”

A comedy of manners

He’s enjoying sinking his teeth into the role of Jack Worthing in “The Importance of Being Earnest,” which opened March 8 and plays through Oct. 25.

Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy of manners takes place on the British Malay Peninsula, a colonial melting pot of South Asian, Chinese, and English communities. Two rakish young men — Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff — opt to navigate Victorian-era expectations of courtship simply by avoiding them. What follows is a wit-fueled whirlwind of mistaken identities and romantic snafus.

“Oscar Wilde is wickedly sharp,” Remulla said. “The text, the language, the play itself, are all a masterpiece of comedy.”

He says that as long as the lines are delivered with good intention and timing, the play sings.

“And it becomes more than the sum of its parts. It’s been a joy to steward that,” he said.

Part of the job is attacking the character with each performance, digging deeper, and learning to trust and relax a little more along the way.

“The challenge, I think, is resisting the urge to be the most interesting thing on stage,” he said. “The cast is so beautifully expressive and intense that it is an easy trap to try to match or top that energy. But drama, and especially comedy, is about relationships. You have to know when to offer space and let the people around you shine.”

Life-changing experience

His OSF experience has been gratifying. During his seasons with the company, he has carried many spears, laughed and cried, watched the greats do great work, all the while learning and growing as an actor.

“Also, I met my wife at OSF, which is the best thing that’s happened to me as an artist and as a man.”

His favorite role during his first three seasons at OSF was as Lucius in director Shana Cooper’s 2017 production of “Julius Caesar.”

“I didn’t have many lines,” he said, “but every single person in that ensemble was deeply involved in bringing the piece to life. We bled and sweated together. You best believe I carried that spear with my entire heart.”

When the play transferred to Off-Broadway’s Theatre for a New Audience at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in New York City, Remulla went along. New York has been his home ever since.

From the Philippines

Remulla was born in Manila, Philippines, and grew up there and on both coasts of the U.S. His parents were doctors, but each had a creative streak. His father played multiple musical instruments and his mother was a lifelong ballet dancer. Remulla and his sister were encouraged to explore artistic hobbies.

He earned a BFA in acting at the Acting Conservatory, UC Santa Barbara. He had planned to attend graduate school, but landing a job with OSF shifted his trajectory.

When he’s not working, he volunteers as a choreographer and camera operator for the Church of the City in New York, where he is a member of the congregation. He played the violin “once upon a time” and plans to get back to it soon.

“And aside from my lifelong love of movies, I probably spend entirely too much time and money on video games,” he confessed.

Asked what he would be doing if he weren’t an actor, he said he imagines himself working in prosthetics or bionics.

“I have no background or training for it whatsoever,” he said. “Maybe it’s the idea of human art and beauty in a different form.”

It makes perfect sense, really — where better for a lover of crafted beauty and imagined identities than a play where even the truth wears a top hat and tails?

Jim Flint’s Curtain Call column publishes on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. Email Jim at [email protected].